Evaluating Funneliformis mosseae symbiosis with barley cultivars under salinity stress conditions

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student, Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

4 Researcher, Institute de Recherche en Biologie Ve´ge´tale, De´partement de Sciences Biologiques, Universite´ de Montre´al, Montre´al, Canada

Abstract

Introduction
Symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi often increases the tolerance of host plants against various stresses. Among abiotic stresses, salinity causes considerable loss in crop productivity. Comprehensive study of plant genotypes response to symbiosis with AM fungi and potential role of this relationship in improving the adverse effects of salinity and increasing plant tolerance would be effective in increasing crop yield. The present study aimed to investigate response of commercial barley varieties to mycorrhizal colonization under salinity stress.
Materials and methods
In this experiment, six commercial barley varieties including Khatam, Golshan, Afzal, Aras, Makoui and Dasht were evaluated at two salinity levels of NaCl (0 and 150 mM) and two symbiosis levels including inoculated and non-inoculated with Funneliformis mosseae. A factorial design in a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted under greenhouse conditions in Zanjan University, Zanjan, Iran. Five weeks after cultivation, barley plants were harvested and the traits related to fungal structures including total colonization rate, and the frequency of hyphae, arbuscule and vesicle were measured. Also, some physiological traits including shoot fresh weight, leaf relative water content (RWC), shoot Na+ concentration, shoot K+ concentration, and Na+/K+ ratio were measured.
Research findings
The results of this experiment showed that there was a significant variation between barley varieties in terms of colonization rate and hyphae, arbuscule and vesicle frequencies of AM fungus. Also, salinity stress reduced the colonization rate, and hyphae and arbuscule frequencies of the fungus, but increased the vesicle frequency, which this reduction was more considerable in salt-tolerant varieties, Khatam and Afzal, especially in Afzal. The increase in vesicle frequency was also significant only in Makoui, Aras and Dasht varieties. The results showed that salinity stress reduced shoot fresh weight and leaf relative water content, and increased Na+ concentration and Na+/K+ ratio in all barley varieties, but these changes in Makoui, Aras and Dasht varieties especially in Aras were more than other varieties. On the other hand, colonized plants exhibit lower shoot fresh weight and leaf RWC compared to non-colonized ones. However, symbiosis enhanced leaf RWC in Khatam and Golshan varieties under non-stress conditions.
Conclusion
The results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between barley commercial varieties in terms of response to symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungus and response to salinity stress. Although the reduction of colonization rate may help barley plants to prevent the consumption of carbohydrate resources, the expected results of symbiosis in terms of improving barley plant growth or reducing the adverse effects of salinity stress on the plant was not observed in the present study. This indicates the complexity of the symbiotic relationship between plant and fungus, and environmental conditions especially stress conditions can increase this complexity.

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Main Subjects

References

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